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Grumpy Writer Blather

Blabbity blabbity blab blab, hit keys, English words, hate it when Wednesday’s posts get bumped to Thursday. Do not remember which week I still owe a Wednesday post from, but I remember that I do. I’m trying something new today, blocking time out in one hour segments, because I am the queen of overthinking. (Seriously, I am. I was once in an NECRWA meeting, and the instructor had broken us into small groups to work on my writing goals. I will not go into my entire dither here, but cut to the chase, where I stopped myself, and asked the rest of the group, “or am I overthinking?” They, all at once, answered with “Oh, God, yes!” So, yeah. That’s pretty much me.)

I hate going into even a blog entry without a plan. Hate, hate, hate, hate, hate it. I’d say I have nothing for this entry, but that’s not true. I always have something. I hate it that Jo Beverley died. When I think of her work, I think first of her RWA workshop on flying into the mist, and her useful lists of forms of address, as well as how long a horse, horse and carriage, team of horses, etc, can travel in a day. I think of her posts on Word Wenches and articles on romance writing, her Facebook posts and the discussion of the merits of standalone romances in the age of series, series everywhere.

It’s only after that, that I think of her actual books. Not sure what that means. I’ve read most of the Malloren world books, and only the first of the Rogues. I’ve read a few of the reissued Signet trads, and a plethora of novella entries. Right now, I’m reading Lord of My Heart, her first medieval. Not very far into it, but it’s always an interesting experience, reading a book by a favorite author and knowing there won’t be any more. Granted, I have rather a lot of Beverley still to read, but whatever there was is now whatever there will be, and I am not okay with that. I am going to miss having her in the world, the books, the blog posts, and, even though our only person to person contact had been short exchanges on the Word Wenches blog or Facebook, never personal, it’s like there is now a part of me that isn’t there anymore, and I’m still dealing with the jagged edges left from other broken-off parts, so it’s an adjustment.

I’ll grump for a while, fuss around in my office for a while, and I’ll write. There’s a bullet point draft that needs writing, because, once that’s done, I get to the smoothing out and rewriting, which I sometimes think I like better than coming up with the initial raw material. This may actually succeed in distracting me from the fact that summer, my least favorite season, will be upon us after this weekend. Bleh. Yeah, I’m grumpy. Grumps like this are best dealt with by acknowledging they exist, and letting the grump do its thing, because it does have a job to do. Exactly what that job might be, I’m not sure, but I trust that it’s leading me in the right direction.

Not quite at the magic seven hundred, so I will keep on going until I’m there. Blabber has a job to do, same as grump does, and the best thing I can do is keep out of its way and let it do its thing, dump the entire contents of my noggin onto the real or virtual page and then, maybe, see about mushing it all into some sense of order. There’s usually something of value, even in the biggest mess, and I do feel like a big mess today. That won’t last. I’ll work through it, but it is where I am right now, and it has a part to play in the rest of the day. The fact that I don’t know what part that is, exactly, bothers me, but getting this entry checked off my list will help me feel more like the writing badass that I am.

I get antsy when I don’t get enough writing time, and by that, I mean specifically fiction. It’s like the characters and stories bottleneck in my brain and batter at the inside of my skull. Really best, in that case, that I let them out so they, too, can do their thing. Which, apparently, is at least partly to get me to the magic seven hundred, so that will be it for this entry, my liebchens. Off to party with my imaginary friends.